Pooooooooooooooop!

(When you read the title above, please do so in the voice of a Latino soccer game announcer when he says GOAL.)

After an entire summer of potty training, I think we have finally accomplished our goal. Phew! Ethan has not worn a diaper in over 3 months, but we have had to change many a pair of underwear in that time. And mostly from poop. And we have had some really disgusting experiences! Luckily, Ethan took to peeing on the potty rather quickly, and has been potty trained at night/naps for a couple of months. But he seemed to have a block about poop. When Will went back to school, I finally got him to go on the potty, but he was still having accidents. Well, we have now had four days without an accident! And, in even bigger news, he has started going places other than at home. On Sunday, he came inside at my sister's house to tell me he had to poop. Then, on Monday at the grocery store, he went again! I was really surprised about that one. He seems to have finally gotten over the poop hump, as it were. The clincher will be when he goes at school for the first time. I don't think he has yet. But, he's always come out in the same clothes I drop him off in, so that's something. He has yet to have an accident at school. It is such a relief to feel like he's pretty well trained. He will surely have accidents here and there, but I don't worry about them anymore because he's gotten really good at letting me know he needs to use the potty. Our next step will be working on pulling his pants up and down by himself. He still needs quite a bit of help, but he's working on it.

Eleanor, while not potty trained yet, continues to wow us with her adorable little self. She's just so darn cute and happy. She sleeps like a champ, eats like a champ, and is an all-around awesome baby girl. She sits up without any help these days, which has been fun. She likes to sit and eat any toy around her. And she LOVES big brother. Even though he takes her toys and even bit her yesterday (big time out for Ethan), she still adores him. When he comes into the room, she just lights up. And he really does love her, too. My favorite thing is when Ethan and I put her down for her naps during the day. Ethan picks out a book, we read it to her, and then we both sing her "Baby Mine." Ethan sings along, and it's just about the most heart-melting scene you can imagine. Will got it on video the other day, though it's too long to post here. When we're done singing, I say, "Time for sleepies" and Ethan repeats it. It's too cute!

On a (Blog)Roll

Day three of preschool went very well. I dropped Ethan off in the car line again. I got him out and put him on the sidewalk. He closed the van door (a good sign, I thought, since it meant he wasn't going to jump back in and hide!), and when his teacher came out, he went in with her no problem. Not a tear in sight. He may be skipping Friday for an event we have, so I'm really hoping that having a long break (Wednesday to Monday) won't derail his progress. I'm relieved that he's doing so well. The teacher says he's doing great, and he even gives us very specific details of what happens in school (playing blocks with Timmy), like what picture he had on his carpet square (a lolipop) and what book they read in circle time (David Goes to School). It's too cute!

And it's also great to get some time a few days a week to get things done around the house. I put Eleanor down for her morning nap as soon as we're home from dropping off Ethan, and then I can fold laundry, prep dinner, wash the kitchen floor, or just sit and watch Oprah if I want. And it's a lot easier to be more patient with Ethan when I get a break from him, too. It's a win win.

And I like that we have two days to do with as we please. Yesterday, we went to the Morton Arboretum with my mom. Ethan has a blast exploring the Children's Garden, and Eleanor was her usual cheerful self in the stroller. It was a gorgeous day and would have been perfect were it not for the awful bees when we tried to eat a snack. They are awful this time of year! But I'm already thinking about the long, long days of winter we will be having all too soon, and I'm more than grateful to have nice days now to be out of doors. Just yesterday I said to Will, "What will we do to get through the witching hour in a couple of months when it will be too cold to walk to the park?" Ugh. I don't even want to think about it.

I've included a couple of videos of Ethan and Eleanor swinging at the park. We go to the park a lot these days after dinner, and Ethan has a renewed love of swinging. Eleanor swings with him, and he likes to push her sometimes. She LOVES when Ethan pushes her, and she laughs and laughs. In the video, you can hear her low growling, too, which cracks me up. In the second video, Ethan starts singing part of the days of the week song he is learning in school.

Checking his (my) watch.

He he - seriously. How cute is this little muffin??? I always have a hard time getting Ethan away from this pump. Sunflower, like the ones from Sunflower Valley from Bob the Builder (at least according to Ethan).

Butterfly #1

Butterfly #2

In the giant acorn.

Climbing the web.

School's in Session!

Today was Ethan's second day of school, and I'm very encouraged. I'll start with his first day. It did not go quite as planned. I took him into his room, only to find that I was the ONLY mother (or caretaker) who came in with their child. All the other moms either dropped them at the door or in the car line. I was a bit surprised, and a bit embarrassed, but Ethan's teachers kept saying that I was welcome to stay as long as I wanted, even the whole time. I stayed probably close to an hour, through free play, circle time, hand washing, and the beginning of snack. At that point, the director popped her head in and came to talk to me. She asked if I wanted to try to leave, to which I replied, "Of course I'd like to, but I know that he will scream bloody murder." She took us both out to the middle and talked to Ethan about taking home a fun lacing game. She asked if he'd like me to put it in the car so he could take it home, and he nodded his head. I told him I'd see him in a little bit and headed for the door. He started crying and the director picked him up and carried him into the classroom while I ducked around a corner. I stuck around for a few minutes and spoke to one of the other teachers, the one who I am told is fantastic (she teaches the 4 year olds now), and she kept me distracted for a bit and then went to check on Ethan. Within a few minutes, he was not crying and was sitting on the teacher's lap, reading a book. So I left. When I went to pick him up, he was happy as can be and looked anything but traumatized. He told me about what he had done and showed me his art project of the day. He said he played with some new kids and seemed to like it. When I asked if he'd like to go back, he said yes.


Today, Will wanted me to go into the building today and then maybe try dropping him off in the car line on Wednesday. But I decided to drop him off in the car line for a few reasons. First of all, I really thought it would be best. I know that my going into the room only makes it harder for Ethan. If I go in, he wants me to stay - period. He will love having me in the classroom and so going in and then leaving will just make it harder and, really, seems more cruel since it gets his hopes up that I get to stay with him. Logistically, it's not easy, either, because I had Eleanor with me today. She was up early and I really had to stretch her to get her to stay awake past drop off as it was. And I knew that if I went in to the school with him, he would physically attach himself to me, while I held on to Eleanor, and it would be very difficult (physically, as well as emotionally) to get him to separate from me. So I pulled up and opened his door. It was an older woman who was there to get him out, and Ethan screamed at her, to which she replied, "Well, okay then." :) So I got out of the van and came around to unhook him. He went to the other side of the van, so I gently pulled him out, picked him up, and placed him on the ground. I told him I loved him, that I would be back soon, and goodbye. Another woman carried him in. Two and a half hours later, I went to pick him up. His teacher brought a beaming Ethan out and told me he had an "awesome" day. She said he was fantastic. I was a bit surprised, honestly, and asked how long he had cried. She said maybe 2 or 3 minutes, if that. And she said that he noticed that his friend Marissa was a little sad and told her (his teacher) that he wanted to go cheer her up. So adorable! Ms. Freebeck, his teacher, also told me that he went potty while there and ate all of his snack.


I feel like I did the right thing in dropping him off outside, no doubt. I'm reminded of what my mom has told me often. She would have kids in her preschool every year that would cry and cry and cry when their parents dropped them off. As soon as the door would shut, though, they turned off their tears and went to play. I know that Ethan really is sad to be leaving me, but I also know he will get over it a lot faster if he learns that I drop him off, he gets to have fun, and then I pick him up. Prolonging our goodbye just sends mixed signals and makes for more crying in the long run.


Speaking of long runs, I ran my half marathon yesterday! Besides the logistical challenges to doing the race (leaving Eleanor early in the AM, leaving both kids with Will!, driving issues, etc.), it was a great time. I felt really good, and got my goal of under 2 hours. My official time was 1:52:37, and I was in the top 10 percent of women in my age group, women in general, and the race in general. I feel pretty good about my performance. I am not sure I want to do these all the time, but I could see myself training for another one sometime. I sort of feel like I should do one soon so that I can just still be in shape for it. We'll see. I don't think I'm hooked. And I do not have any desire to do a marathon. My feet are pretty well damaged from this race, so I don't want to add any more mileage to my races. I'm pretty proud to have accomplished this goal, especially since I signed up for it when I was 7 months pregnant and not even near being able to start running again. I really stuck to my training, though, and I think it paid off. Check that one off the list!

Ethan the morning of his first day of preschool.
Outside before we left.

My "baby" boy is growing up!

Eleanor with one of her boyfriends (sorry, Andrew, she needs options), Jason.

We went to the LT football game Friday night with our friends. Derek and Ethan watched the marching band practice and ran around before we watched a tiny bit of the game.

Here are our great friends, the Scudders. They were leaving the game as we came in.

Eleanor and Mommy after the race. Will put on her "My Mommy Rocks" shirt.

Hail the victors - Laura and I post race.

This is the sign Will made for Ethan to hold up. Unfortunately, they never saw me in the race. There were just so many people, and, quite frankly, I was just going too fast. :)

(Almost) Fall Days

Tomorrow is Ethan's first full day of preschool and, honestly, it could not come fast enough. Ethan is driving me CRAZY. Don't get me wrong. I love him. He says some darn funny things. And he's really flippin' cute. He's even being very cute with Eleanor lately, singing her "Baby Mine" before we put her down for a nap and giving her lots of kisses. But he can also be an absolute TERROR, and I think it will be good for both of us to have some apart time. He really just doesn't listen 99% of the time, and I find myself telling him to do (or, more likely, not do) the same thing over and over and over until I end up yelling. The yelling almost never works, gets him more riled up, and makes me feel like a bad mom. So it's really a lose lose lose situation.

It will be nice to have a chance to miss him for a couple of hours three days a week, and it will be great for him to be away from me since he is extremely clingy to me, especially lately. I'm talking running-down-the-driveway-screaming-when-I-try-to-go-for-a-run-once-Will-gets-home kind of clingy. And I almost had to take him with me to the dentist the other day. It's bad. Not sure why he prefers me so much over Will right now. I mean, I make really crappy towers compared to Will, and I don't really get into Spiderman and Green Goblin, either. Plus, I'm always yelling at him. (I guess Will has a pretty short temper with him lately, as well, so it's a wonder he likes any of us!) I'm sure a lot of his clingy behavior stems from all our talk of him going to school. We'll see how it goes. If I'm able to leave him alone at school at all tomorrow, I'll consider it a major success. Updates to come...

In other news, we've been LOVING this weather lately. It's been nice and cool in the morning and then perfect during the day, in the lower to mid-seventies. So awesome! It's nice not to sweat every time you walk outside and also fun to be able to dress Eleanor in some of her new fall wardrobe. Plus, it's much nicer drinking a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte in cool weather. Mmmmmm...Pumpkin Spice Latte.

One of our favorite family activities lately is to go for a walk after dinner. We do this mostly because Eleanor gets antsy at the end of the day but is always calm in the stroller. But it's also very fun and gives Will and I a chance to chat at the end of the day. If we have a lot of time, we will walk to the park, and Ethan will ride either his trike or his big wheel, renamed his motorcycle. He's gotten really fast! If we don't have a lot of time, then we walk around the block. I push Eleanor in the stroller, and Ethan pushes Eleanor Monkey in his stroller. The other night, it was particularly cool out, so I put a hat on Eleanor and covered her with a blanket. We started to leave but then Ethan decided that Eleanor monkey just had to have a hat and blanket, too. See picture below - too funny!

During the day, we do a lot of visits to parks in between Eleanor's naps. Oftentimes, we will bring a picnic lunch because Ethan loves to picnic. I keep a picnic blanket and some of Eleanor's toys in the car at all times just to be ready. Then, Ethan can play at the park and Eleanor and I can watch from the blanket.

Eleanor is getting very close to sitting up on her own. When she has a toy in front of her, she will sit for maybe up to 30 seconds before flopping to one side or the other (or back or forward). Another week or two and she'll be even more independent, I'm sure. It will be nice when I can put her in the Pack 'n Play with some toys while I cook dinner and she can sit up and play.

Eleanor Monkey, all bundled up.

Our other Eleanor, all snug for our walk.

Will and Ethan at the top of the big hill at the farm park last weekend.
On our picnic blanket at the park.
Shall I start him in modeling or what?
Getting more and more into the circle of neglect, aka exersaucer.

I took the kids to Millenium Park today to meet my friend Brent for lunch. Besides not being able to park at my normal street parking and having to pay $23 for less than 2 hours in the city, it was a fun trip. Ethan kept saying the rest of the day that he wanted to go back to "millenum park."

Thankfully, he didn't go into the big stream of water this time. It was too cold, and I didn't want him to get soaking wet.

Here we are in the Bean. If you can't tell, I'm standing behind our double stroller.

I ordered Eleanor two of these mesh headbands and then bought a rainbow of clips to attach to them. She's modeling one combo here.

And here is her fall hat. I ordered the hat online (wanted dark brown but they were out) for less than $2, and then found this great flower clip to attach to it.

We were given this purple knit hat, which won't fit for too much longer but is super cute and matches what will likely become Eleanor's special blankie. I clipped a purple flower to it today for when we were outside.

Siblings

Which one is which?

Eleanor's 6 month stats:

Height - 26 inches (50-75%)

Weight - just under 15 pounds (25-50%)

Head Circumference - 40 cm (5-10%)